We were now making our way out of the camp with Than and his family. Sokka was busy whining about the tickets.
"I can't believe we gave up our tickets, and now we're going through the Serpent's Pass," Sokka whined.
"I can't believe you're still complaining about it," Toph snapped.
"Wasn't this originally your idea?" Jin pointed out, much to Mogui's amusement and Sokka's irritation.
"That was before I found out about the peaceful ferry rides!"
"I'm coming too!" Suki, the random girl from before, caught up.
She was dressed up in fancy armour with full face makeup.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Sokka asked cautiously.
"Sokka, I thought you'd want me to come?" Suki asked, completely surprised.
"I do, I just..." Sokka shrugged, and Mogui nudged me.
"This Suki girl..." Mogui started.
"Just what?" Suki snapped.
"Yeah, Amaya's like that when you suggest she can't do something," I whispered to the blonde firebender.
"Sokka should stop before she plants him into the nearest wall," Mogui responded.
"Nothing. I'm glad you're coming," Suki stalked past Sokka angrily while he looked down and followed.
"Hey, Mogui?" I grumbled as we exited the camp.
"Yes, Muteki?" he answered casually.
"I would prefer you stop referring to me as 'that hairy lummox.'"
"Now, when did I do that?" Mogui answered, sounding slightly affronted.
"The camp, the refugees, the bureaucrat, you said it to the gate guards as we left the ferries," I listed for him.
"Hmm," he answered thoughtfully. "That does sound like me."
I whacked him upside the back of his head. "Knock it off, sparkler."
He made several indignant noises, insisting he did not sparkle.
Eventually, we reached the Serpent's Pass, which was literally just a narrow sliver of land extending out across the great lake.
"This is the Serpent's Pass?" Sokka commented. "I thought it would be windier, you know, like a serpent. Hmm, I guess they misnamed it."
As we got closer, there was a large wooden oriental archway with a pass just beyond. Straight and steep. Excellent.
"Look at this writing. How awful," Ying said as she approached the gatepost.
"What does it say?" Toph asked.
I was unfamiliar with the writing, so I left it to Katara to help the blind kid.
"It says, "Abandon hope,"" Katara said.
"How could we abandon hope?" Ying asked miserably, burying her face in her husband's chest. "It's all we have."
"I don't know," Aang said evenly. "The monks used to say that hope is just a distraction. So maybe we do need to abandon it."
"What are you talking about?" Katara demanded.
"Hope isn't going to get us into Ba Sing Se, and it's not gonna find Appa-"
Before Aang could go any further with that train of thought, I cut him off. "Remember Ying, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies."
Aang gave me this odd look like he was annoyed that I cut him off, but he wanted to believe me at the same time, and then we all followed him through the gateway.
"Ah," Jin said dryly. "Off we go to our impending doom."
I gave her a mildly annoyed look, and she grinned with a shrug.
"Watch your step, big guy," she said.
As we made our way, Suki explained a few things to us.
"The Fire Nation controls the western lake," she said. "Rumor has it they're working on something big on the other side, and they don't want anyone to find out what it is."
As she spoke, a Fire Nation war vessel could be seen just cruising off in the distance. The others watched it nervously as we crossed.
"Hey, Mog," I commented lightly. "Do something about that hair of yours. It's like a glowing light. You'll give us away."
"I'll give us away!?" He answered indignantly. "Your hair is like a blazing flame, you overgrown lummox!"
"Girls! Girls!" Jin said sarcastically. "You're both pretty. Can we keep moving?"
Suddenly the path gave way under Than, and Toph and I quickly had him back on the path with his family.
"I'm okay!" Than called out, smiling with obvious relief.
Unfortunately, the path gave us away to the passing warship, which launched a fireball at us.
"They've spotted us! Let's go, let's go!" Sokka shouted.
"No, I was thinking of hanging out and inviting the fireball out to tea!" I yelled back as I made sure the others were safely past me to protect them with my earthbending if necessary.
"Sarcasm? Really? Now!?" Katara yelled back.
"I speak it fluently!" I retorted as Aang launched himself from the cliff face and redirected the fiery projectile back towards the chip.
"Going, going, gone!" I yelled. "That's Avatar Aang's 250th home run this season!"
Another ball of fiery death is launched just before the catapult is destroyed and flew towards us.
"Muteki!" Mogui yelled, slightly frightened, slightly amused, but mostly annoyed.
"May have to call that a ground-rule double!" I responded as Toph protected Sokka from falling rocks, and I caught Jin around the waist.
I used my bending to keep Mogui from losing his balance and falling over the side and then helped Jin regain her footing.
"Nice catch," she breathed as she ran after the rest of the group.
Once we were finally safe in a nice sheltered part of the pass that was wide enough for a small camp, we all layout our bedrolls and prepared to sleep. Mogui watched a brief argument between Suki and Sokka, an unreadable expression on his face before I decided I was exhausted.
"Hey, Jin?"
"Yes, Muteki?"
"Would you consider that the impending part of the impending doom?"
"I hope so," came the muttered response.
"Huh..." I lay there staring at the stars, long after the others had finally fallen asleep, before eventually passing out myself.